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The EU is not to Blame

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David Bedein
David Bedein, who grew up in Philadelphia and moved to Israel in 1970 at the age of 20, is an
… [More]MSW community organizer by profession and an expereinced investigative journalist. In 1987 he established the Israel Resource News Agency, with offices at the Beit Agron Int’l Press Center in Jerusalem, where he also serves as Director of the Center for Near East Policy Research. In 1991, Bedein was the special CNN middle east radio correspondent. Since 2001, Bedein has contributed features to the newspaper Makor Rishon. In 2006, Bedein became the foreign correspondent for the Philadelphia Bulletin, writing 1,062 articles until the newspaper ceased operation in 2010. He is the author of " The Genesis of the Palestinian Authority" and "ROADBLOCK TO PEACE- How the UN Perpetuates the Arab-Israeli Conflict: UNRWA policies reconsidered"and the director and producer of the numerous short films about UNRWA policy which can be located at: http://tinyurl.com/lxc6xvs [Less]

There is no reason to blame the EU for initiating the boycott of Israel’s Jewish communities in areas acquired by Israel following the 1967 war.

Neither anti-antisemitism nor anti-Zionism motivate the policy that the EU has just enacted., to cut off all ties with the the Jewish communities who reside in the Old City of Jerusalem, the Jordan Valley, the Dead Sea, the Golan , or in Judea and Samaria.

Ever since joining the informal EU-Israel Press Forum in 2002, our news agency and research center interacted with all of the European consulates who are based in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria.

We continually interview these consuls concerning their policies towards Israel, the Palestinian Authority and UNRWA.

The Israeli government maintains no ties whatsoever with European consuls, whose primary focus is the Palestinian Authority,

These key influential European consuls, who influence key policy decisions concerning areas beyond the 1967 lines. are lobbied by all levels of the Palestinian Authority and by tens of Israeli NGO’s who oppose the presence of Jewish communities in areas acquired by Israel in the wake of the 1967 war – including the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem.

In that context, Israeli NGO’s overwhelm the European consuls with the specious idea that Jewish settlement in areas taken by Israel would constitute a “war crime”,

The concept of a boycott of products that emanate from Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria was conceived of by two Israeli organizations who defined themselves as peace advocates – Peace Now and Gush Shalom – while receiving funding from these European consuls.

Our agency has witnessed and reported that the leadership NGO’s, also operating with EU funding, such as the Peres Center for Peace, the Economic Cooperation Foundation headed by Yossi Beilin, , the New Israel Fund and the Charles Bronfman Foundation, also known as the CRB Foundation, have all given credence to the EU notion that Israeli Jewish communities beyond the 1967 lines constitute no less than a “war crime”.

While Israeli lawyers from these Israeli NGO’s brief European consuls in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, the Israeli government will not communicate with these EU reps.

The EU consulates are left with one opinion: that the Israeli presence beyond 1967 lines constitutes a “crime against humanity.

For years, our agency has asked the Israeli prime minister’s office , foreign minister’s office, Defense Minister’s office and Justice minister’s office to provide diplomatic missions on Jerusalem with a clear, resolute policy statement which affirms Israel’s legal right to settle its citizens in areas acquired after the 1967 war, to which there is no response.

European consuls whom we interact with are left with the legal assessment that they hear from Peace Now ,Gush Shalom the Peres Center for Peace, the Economic Cooperation Foundation, the New Israel Fund and the CRB Foundation, which is that “Israeli settlement activity is illegal”, which no Israeli government agency is ready to contradict.

The EU consuls fall victim to Israeli NGo’s, who present themselvs as patriotic Israelis, while manipulating consuls to join them in opposing Israeli policies that they oppose.

Do not point a finger at the EU.

Blame the government of Israel, which will not defend a patriotic policy – to return the people of Israel to their homeland..

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